Prefabricated buildings, such as storage buildings or sheds, are intended to be purchased, assembled, and maintained by consumers who do not necessarily have the training or inclination to assemble and maintain such a structure, particularly if such assembly and/or maintenance requires a great deal of skill. Accordingly, prefabricated metal storage buildings have been developed that include pre-drilled fastener holes and other design features that simplify the assembly of such a storage building. However, such designs typically require a large number of threaded fasteners (e.g., 600 or more threaded fasteners), such as screws and bolts, for a typical storage building having a length of about eight feet (about 2.4 meters) and a width of about ten feet (about 3.0 meters). This large number of threaded fasteners causes the assembly, maintenance and disassembly of a storage building to be a time consuming and tedious task, especially for the typical consumer who is not accustomed to assembling storage buildings. Assembly could be simplified by providing relatively large portions of the storage building to the ultimate purchaser. For example each portion could comprise either an integral or preassembled major component (such as an entire wall). However, such an approach is inconsistent with the need to package the unassembled storage building in a relatively small box to enable the consumer to easily transport it from the place of purchase to the site on which the storage building is to be erected. Further, preassembly of separate components involves additional labor, increasing the overall cost of the storage building.
In addition, the large number of threaded fasteners, associated holes and inevitable nicks and scratches that occur during installation of the fasteners provide a large number of locations that can be undesirably prone to corrosion.